Makin' It Monday: What's Happening In YOUR Kitchen?

Today I'd like to do something different for Makin' It Monday. I'll tell you what we've eaten today, but I want to hear what's been happening in YOUR kitchen!

This morning I sliced up three bananas, drizzled them with some agave, sprinked a bit of Himalayan crystal salt on them, and then topped them with hemp seeds and sprouted flax seeds with cranberries and gogi berries. I love this breakfast because it feels like I'm eating something a bit complex and more filling than simply eating the bananas plain (which is how I almost always eat them). KDcat had a bowl of oatmeal (not raw), and Jim had a few pieces of fruit.

For lunch we had nori wraps, made the way Jim showed in a previous video. It took him less than ten minutes to prepare lunch for all of us! I'm feeling a bit low on energy today (you'd think I'd remember to start my day with juice since it gives me a wonderful energetic start to the day, but I got out of the habit of making juice and now it is going to take some time to get back to doing that on a regular basis). So, for dinner we'll most likely have smoothies--because they are super quick, tasty, and filling. If I'm very hungry at dinner time, I'll have a coconut smoothie. If I'm not too hungry, however, I'll opt for a fruit smoothie.

What have you been making lately? I'd love to hear what's been happening in your kitchens. Have you created anything fun and delicious recently?

Original Comments

Below, we have included the original comments from this blog post. Additional comments may be made via Facebook, below.

Hi, Wendi! I love the banana dish you made and will have to try it out!

Today I'm using the leftovers in my refrigerator before I go grocery shopping tonight. I made a nice smoothie using 1 banana, 1/2 a pineapple, 1/2 to 1 cup green grapes, and a sprig of mint. The mint makes the smoothie, I think. Yummy!

1. green smoothie
2. green smoothie and a small piece of raw cranberry biscotti
3. very small portions of a mixed salad, pumpkin pie soup, and spiralized zucchini with a sun dried tomato/pesto sauce. (Despite the tiny servings it was too heavy. I'm learning that for me simple is better.) I probably could have handled two fo the three but the three was overkill. Live and learn, I still feel way better than if I'd eaten a SAD meal. LOL

On March 30, 2009, Joanna_Steven wrote:

How fun!

Alright, here's what I've been having for breakfast:
- Green Juice. I got a small manual greens juicer for $35, so I get fresh juice and a small upper body work-out ;)

I absolutely LOVE these green juices, but I've been having some acne lately and my "glow" which I get with massive quantities of green isn't back. I wonder what's up, probably stress and poor sleep... :(

I have this at 8 am. Then, if I'm at home, I'll have a big berry-green smoothie at 10 am. Or else, I'll juice 2 grapefruits and take the juice to school.

As for lunch, today I came home early and was starving. I had made chia pudding in almond milk, but it was so fatty I couldn't eat it :( So, I tossed some kelp noodles with broccoli, mushrooms, raw olives, a bit of olive oil and a bit of sesame oil. Yum! Delicious. Oh, and a bit of sea salt.

Dinner was cooked, we had chickpeas in a spicy Indian sauce and brown rice (I'm running low on produce).

Take care,
Joanna.

On March 30, 2009, Renelle wrote:

The last few days I have been nearly totally raw.

I invited non-raw friends over yesterday and made a raw pineapple-cucmber gazpacho which was awesome.
For desert I served the mellifulous pudding made with grapefruit (not orange) over bananas sprinkled with black sesame.
They wanted both recipes but fortunately I put a bit too much chilli in the gazpacho, so I got to keep those leftovers ;-). They took the mellifulous pudding though ;-)

Lately I have been loving raw ranch dressing from Carmela at Sunny Raw kitchen on my salads and have been adding a chopped up fuji apple too!
Tonight I added a medjool date and some walnuts too, yowza, so good!
and hemp on well, everything and in everything!
deb

On March 30, 2009, DebB wrote:

I always start my day with a big (1.5-2 quarts) green smoothie. I add a young Thai coconut (which I find "Best" brand at our local Asian market for $11.35 a case of 9! So much cheaper than the grocery store at $2.58 each), organic greens, spinach, mixed spring mix (last 2 organic from Costco), an orange, pineapple, banana and powdered greens & spirulina. Whooh - that's my power house for the day.

I'm trying to get into the habit of juicing daily as well, so more of the same above, I like to add a chunk of ginger, stalks from asparagus or broccoli... And I like to have a dehydrated garden 'burger' or two with my juice.

Then for dinner, I typically have some kind of salad, not a lettuce salad though. I enjoy Wendi's Cauli salad from 2 weeks or so ago, broccoli salad, Waldorf salad, etc.

the other day I made the nori wraps which were yum!
I made again and added different ingredients, what ever was in the fridge, and they were really quick to make!

I am trying to make ani phyo's favourite dressing but can't find the entire recipe only parts of it, I remember one of the ingredients in it was braggs I am not usre what that is, does anybody know
where I can find out

Thanks Wendi!
p.s
I am currently working on alternatives for breakfast, as I am listening to my body and it is telling me not to eat bread, so I am currently working on ideas for this meal!

bye
sheryl miller
canberra australia

On March 31, 2009, Robyn wrote:

Hi Wendi & Jim!

For me most mornings start at 5am with 32 ozs. of fresh spring water (really gets things moving!). Then I'll make 2 blenders full (I have a regular blender so it's about 40 ozs. each) of green smoothie. One I drink for breakfast and the other I bottle up to take to work for the mid afternoon hungries I usually get because I have to eat lunch so early. My favorite smoothie of late is 3 1/2-3 bananas, frozen pineapple, and either spinach or parsley, coconut water or oil and water.

Lunch is usually a salad from work using as much raw produce as I can find with lemon juice, olive oil and salt for dressing.

Dinner has been either a salad, another smoothie, or some other lighter raw dish. Once in a while I'll have whatever cooked food I'm making for my son along with my raw stuff but not every night.

Your banana breakfast sounds wonderful Wendi! That might just become a great snack for me!

Love and light to both you and Jim! :)

On March 31, 2009, shawna wrote:

I just slurped up a green-smoothie that I make every morning. It changes from day to day depending on the greens I have available. It always include soaked goji berries and dates, a frozen banana, and an apple or two. . .maybe a pear. My body drags without it!

Currently in my dehydrator, I have some carrot flax seed bread. I used left over carrot pulp from juicing this weekend. I also added some sprouted kamut and spices. Also in the dehydrator is a banana, date, walnut leather. . .I keep picking the edges off to munch on!

Wendi, do you make your own sprouted flax? If so I would love to learn!

Congratulations on being nearly raw for the past few days!! That's wonderful! I love that you
invited friends over to share some raw foods, too--that's such a great way to not only enjoy more
raw foods yourself, but to share the delicious meals with others who may not realize how delicious
raw foods can be!

It's great that you feel how different your body is feeling when you go without the smoothie in
the morning. It makes it easier eating healthy when we see how we don't feel as great without
healthy foods!

We do the same thing in our home...dehydrated foods rarely make it to the final stage because of
all the picking we all do.

No, I don't make my own sprouted flax. I met a lovely woman at the Raw Spirit Festival and her
family makes and sells the sprouted flax that I love (she gave me a sample of it and I've loved it
ever since). You can buy it through Natural Zing (http://www.purejeevan.com/resources)--I get the
one with cranberries and gogi berries in it. YUM!!

Thanks for the sweet comment. :-)

Lots of love to you,

Wendi
XOXOXO

On March 31, 2009, Renelle wrote:

How NOT to make Marinara sauce :-) and how to VENT :-)

I have only been including raw into my diet for about 3 weeks. I read about it for 3 months before that :-).

Eventually I took the plunge and started including green smoothies and then more and more.

What's frustrating is that virtually everything I do is new ..... other than nut milks and green smoothies which I have pretty much mastered.
So I try to go by recipes till I get a better FEEL for raw foods.

Last night I followed Jennifer Cornbleets recipe for marinara which I'm sure worked fabulously without subsitutions :-).
I, however added more fresh tomatoes than sun dried because I didn't have a lot of sundried but I did have a lot of fresh ones that needed to be used.
I do not keep dried herbs since I usually have plenty fresh in my garden, but my last gardener misunderstood which bed to clear, and whalla, no more herbs. My newly planted garden is still in infancy.
So I added my 1 basil and 2 oregano leaves from my infant herb garden, and decided to fill in with 2 spinach leaves, 2 sorrel leaves, a bit of celery and some parsley which were from another bed. I thought these would give the spicy flavor I was looking for.

They pretty much did. They also added green color to red color which produced brown :-). Since the consistency was very runny from the fresh tomatoes, I then added some dates to thicken it which really cemented the brown :-<. But they were successfull at thickening the sauce for me.

After grating my pasta because I couldn't get my new mandoline to julienne, I sat down to my meal of grated yam and daikon topped with brown goo :-)

In all honesty it didn't taste too bad, but I really am looking for some-one else to take the left overs ;-)
Any takers?

On March 31, 2009, Renelle wrote:

Actually Wendi, I would also like to know how to make sprouted flax.

What do you do with that gelatinous stuff when you soak it, and how long so you sprout it before you make crackers and do you grind it up? Thanks so much!

I have no idea how to sprout flax. I've never done it before. If you try it and it turns out good,
let me know!

*blows kisses*

On March 31, 2009, Renelle wrote:

Ok Wendi, I'll experiment with sprouted flax and let you all know.

Afterall, it can't be worse than brown goo :-) Or can it? Gelatinous goo ??

Actually I also am going to be working on a raw sesame cookie recipe since I can't find one which I'll share if I manage to perfect it.

Love to you all and better successes than my recent one :-)

On March 31, 2009, RawkYouLikeaHurricane wrote:

I'm only getting one raw meal a day so far (which is a big improvement) so I'll share about that one. I am totally in to the Cucumber Noodles Aioli that Rawdawg Rory made on Raw Fu last week. Ihave had them twice in the last two days! I make my hubby a cooked dinner, and I can make cuke noodles with my julienne peeler while his rice cooks, so we eat together, yay! Tonight I am trying the Mushroom Soup recipe from Alive in Five. I hope that it will feel the Cream of Mushroom shaped hole in my heart. :)

One raw meal is a great start! Cucumber noodles sound great. KDcat (our daughter) is completely
into cucumbers. It sounds like you are enjoying your one raw meal a day--it's fun to experiment
with different recipes!